This exhibition was reviewed by the New York press. Among the critics who wrote about it were Dore Ashton, of the The New York Times; Emily Genauer, of the New York Tribune; Charles Warner, of the New York Sunday News; and Robert M. Coates, of The New Yorker magazine. There was a great deal of controversy and unease among Puerto Rican artists about the comments made by one of the critics. The ten artists who traveled to New York under the auspices of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP) had a great cultural experience when they visited major museums and art centers. The ten visiting artists were: Julio Rosado del Valle, Carlos Raquel Rivera, Lorenzo Homar, Rafael Tufiño, Epifanio Irizarry, Eduardo Vera, Luis Cajigas, Felix Bonilla, Samuel Sanchez, and Manuel Hernandez. The exhibition included more than 100 works.
Nilita Vientós Gastón (San Sebastián, PR, 1903–1989) was a professor of comparative literature at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus. She was editor of the journal, Asomante [Emerging], and founded the magazine Sin Nombre [Nameless]. She wrote the column, “ÍndiceCultural” [Cultural Index] in the newspaper, El Mundo, from 1962 to 1984, using that space to defend cultural progress in Puerto Rico.
For more information about the exhibition: “Pinturas Boricuas NY. Artistas comentan éxito exposición” [Puerto Rican Painters NYC: Artists Comment on the Successful Exhibition.] (see doc. No. 854572); “Para gloria de Puerto Rico, la exposición en Riverside” [For the Glory of Puerto Rico, the Exhibition at Riverside] (doc. No. 854539); “Ricardo E. Alegría comenta éxito exposición de artistas boricuas N.Y.” [Ricardo E. Alegría Comments on the Successful Exhibition by Puerto Rican Artists] (doc. No. 854591), among others.